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The Toronto Maple Leafs followed a similar plan to their victory in Game 1, showing more speed and winning puck battles to get a lead, but had to rely on goalie Jack Campbell late in regulation to preserve their lead in a 5-2 victory over the Tampa Bay Lightning in Game 3 at Amalie Arena on Friday.
Morgan Rielly, Colin Blackwell, David Kampf gave Toronto a 3-0 lead early in the second period, Tampa rallied with two goals late in the middle frame and early third to make the game tight down the stretch, but Campbell kept the Leafs in front with a right pad save on Nick Paul and a sprawling stop on Steven Stamkos late in regulation before Ilya Mikheyev scored a pair of empty-netters to seal the deal and give Toronto a 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven series.
"(Campbell has) made some big saves, but we're in the playoffs and that's a game-saving save." Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe said after the game. "There was a bit of a sense on the bench that it's going in and Stamkos doesn't miss those very much when it comes through like that, but Jack is well aware that's a legitimate threat and he's conscious of it and one of the great things about him is he never gives up on a puck (and) never feels like he's out of it, and (he) found a way to keep it out."
Tampa was successful in shutting down Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner at even strength and the Leafs did not get much production out of John Tavares and William Nylander. Anthony Cirelli, Alex Killorn and Brayden Point neutralized Toronto’s top line, while Tavares and Nylander could not generate much against the Stamkos line, but Toronto, fortunately, got enough offense from secondary sources, as the Rielly scored on an early power play, fourth-liner Blackwell converted on a three-on-one break after a setup by Ilya Lyubushkin and third-liner Kampf scored his second goal of the series on a wrist shot that beat Andrei Vasilevskiy.
Keefe made moves that were key to the victory, opting to sit Wayne Simmonds and go with veteran Jason Spezza (not going head-to-head against the Lightning’s aggressive fourth line) and taking a timeout after Ondrej Palat’s third-period goal to calm his players.
"It was a combination of allowing me to talk to our team and settle down. It's also a little bit of an attempt to kill some (of Tampa's) momentum a little bit." Keefe said "We had a lot of time left to play in the period, but we needed to just recognize that we were fine. These are the games we need to win."
The Leafs practiced in Tampa on Saturday and did not make any lineup changes, but did move Alex Kerfoot back to the top line with Matthews and Marner, shifted Pierre Engvall to the third line with Mikheyev and Kampf, and Michael Bunting to the fourth line with Blackwell and Spezza.
Toronto Maple Leafs Blogger • 
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